Wow. What a topic. A lot can be said about this when you really think about it. This is the first time I've ever seen a topic like this examined on an MJ board. Very intersting to me.
The "Reality" Checks are some things every fan of every entertainer has to eventually face no matter how well we THINK we know them. We forget that every time we see them they're pretty much extremely "rehearsed" and "curated" so its a very fair question.
I was in that song interpretation thread where it was mused that MJ might go to "the hood" if he wanted to meet someone. I find that easy to believe about him. But based on his interviews and lyrics, I'd say, due to his view (my view of his view lol) of economics it would not be to take anyone seriously because I do believe that for MJ happiness was definitely always material things....depending upon what you observe about him...for real.
A degree of "illusion" can be fun while degrees of "delusion" can be sad and dangerous when fans lose sight of reality. The fact is, you/we are a customer first and foremost..and a continuing admirer or "fan" after that...if their publicity remains consistent that is.
Afterall, buying from him is how we know him. He sold. We bought. With money. Little by little. Year in. Year out. Millions of people. NOT by accident. Right?
James Brown, MJ's mentor was known for saying, "your fans are your customers" and you have to please your customers or they will not BUY.
"Sell" means to make them feel, a) they know you, b) they like you and c) they trust you. Google: "the know, like and trust factor"
and most of his audience is not of extreme wealth like he and his associates....a line in a song like, "happiness ain't always material things" is pretty much a must, considering many fans felt they "know" him due to their humble beginnings.
MJ would not need to be a big spender only in Bashir's presence when MJ had a whole Neverland etc. so no I don't see where he did anything just to impress Bashir alone, as much as to perhaps show the world how far he had come.
And in a lot of songs that he wrote himself, like so many other singers of popular R & B music of the day, he's "bribing" chicks with "material" themes/things that many singers of the 90s used in their songs...ie., "I'll give you this" ..."I'll buy you that" and he had rappers in his music echoing those sentiments.... "Condos with elevators in 'em" etc.
...and let's fact it, MJ attracted (maybe intentionally) his fair share of gold diggers if you define "gold diggers" as women who "use" wealthy men to get ahead in life... even those who appeared hard working.
And if you read all the articles that came out before the internet, earlier on, he used the word, "mediocrity" to describe what he didn't want any parts of in his life...articles where he talks about only liking "exotic" animals and not every day dogs and cats (and that sentiment seemed to have changed over time perhaps with having children) and its understandable if you can afford a whole Girraff and a Chimpanzee why would you adopt a dog or cat from a shelter..when you're 15, 20, 25 years old and filthy rich?
The question is, why wouldnt he be "materialistic" given that he was exposed to the highest end of the lap of luxury from age 12, and he was surrounded by people who pursued that degree of luxury with all their might and by any means necessary and so your environment helps create your actual value system, even if it includes greedy selfish devils...
MJ was consequently used for being generous to a fault, by some of those same "rich" people who cared less about him.
How uncomfortable were the early years with eleven people in two rooms in the humid Indiana summers that he may have been a bit "paranoid" of poverty once they made it BIG.
"Hollywood you got a lotta pretty things, I saw a lot of movie stars with diamond rings" or as they said on the Beverly Hillbilly theme, "swimmin pools .... movie stars" so I can just imagine the mental work it had to be to think of a "mediocre" living person as anything but "mediocre" and "the greats" (the rich and famous) and being anything but ("great").
It would also be understandable to me being that, if this is true, his first paycheck (after all those years of toil and rear-end whippins) was reportedly $250k at age 12. . . and with the music industry there's no telling how much of that had to go back after paying for this and that advances....but still....the "material things" is what they used to trap them in the first place...on account of the fact that is exactly what they become addicted to...other than the attention itself.
I can see "happiness ain't always material things" being sent out to a wide audience on a record. Why not? An audience mind you, of mostly "regular" folks who have to buy his records to hear him say "happiness ain't always material things" to a bunch of "poor", "regular", "mediocre" folks.
Remember (or research) how upset MJ was in 1984 that Don King wanted to charge $30 for the Victory tour concert tickets? MJ was so mad that he donated his Victory tour money to charity? How much were Bad tickets 3 years later? Anyone recall? Was he mad about that?
I know people hate to think of someone so very ______ (fill in the blanks of your "image" of him) as MJ being all about money and its so easy to forget that at the end of the day, Michael Jackson, was a (very great, the best ever) salesman. . and one who had to tow a careful line not to insult his main fan base, people for whom happiness was truly not always material things but I think for him it had to be. What choice did he really have...after being so rich for so long after being so "poor" for so long? js
I will probably edit this
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
